iOptron Minitower question

I have a sick Minitower mount. I plugged a Celestron NextGuide into the guideport assuming it was ST4, and it's not. Basically I have no motor movement. The controller lights up and looks active but I get a "Can't communicate with DEC motor controller" error.

However, I noticed the controller shows EQ, and when I go through the menu to "Set Mount Type" it shows Equatorial and I can't change it. Is this normal for this mount? The manual says it should be AltAz which is what I expected.

I did reflash the firmware but it made no difference.

I'm guessing I need a new circuit board but I'm curious to know why the mount type seems fixed on EQ.

Any chance that the NextGuide sent high, or reversed polarity DC voltage that the mount wasn't expecting? Perhaps two of the pins were shorted in the control cable, causing an unexpected short circuit in the mount?

In any event, it sounds like one of the chips took a hit. Your best bet is to probably contact iOptron.

Seems strange plugging in a wrong format ST-4 cable would cause damage. These are just switch closures. Usual result is a mount's guiding directions are wrong or it's moving in one direction continuously...

I dunno why the damage occurred, but I did contact iOptron and they were very quick to reply. I told them about the hand controller showing EQ mode only and they suggested that indicated the HC was blown rather than the main board.

Sure enough, I took the cover off the HC and when powered there is a chip that gets very toasty very quickly.

iOptron has suggested I send the HC and main board in and they'll repair as needed. The pricing was quite excellent, too, so I'm going to do that.